A lot of work is done in making linux suspend work better. For me it works perfect (from linux kernel 2.6.20 or so). Therefore I wanted to go a step further and let my class A, heavy power-using receiver switch off when my desktop computer suspends (to ram). And switch back on when my computer wakes up. The motivation is that I only listen music via my computer.

To achieve this I bought the Gembird Silver Shield, a USB-switchable power adapter. I was prepared to do some nice USB snooping and C programming to get this device working in linux, but (un)fortunately there was already a working utility for this device.

Configuration for suspend/hibernate is not so easy and documentation is sparse for the user mode utilities. Since it took me more than the usual googling I will summarize my conclusions here for later use. First the gnome-screensaver measures the idle time. After this timeout is expired the gnome-power-manager starts to measure his own timeout (so before suspend the two times will stack). When the gnome-power-manager times out it will look at the Inhibit flag. If there is no inhibiting (for example my rhythmbox pushes Inhibiting, because I do not want to suspend when music is playing) your computer will suspend.

Since a custom script should be added to switch the power-switch off via usb with sispmctl the suspend-backend is important. Gnome power manager can use multiple backends to go to suspend mode. This works via hal (the hardware abstraction layer). Configuration for this is in /usr/share/hal/information. HAL is responsible for calling the suspend-backend. The default suspend-backend on my machine is pm-utils. (which can be tested with pm-(suspend/hibernate/power-save etc.). I also have a package called hibernate (which can also suspend, confusing isnt' it?). A third one is suspend2 (which can also hibernate....). These backends have different ways of adding custom hooks.

To add a hook to hibernate I added a file called local in /etc/hibernate/scriptlets.d/. The API is as follows (ugly in my book):

# -*- sh -*-

UsbPowerSocketDown() {
      /usr/bin/sispmctl -f1
}
UsbPowerSocketUp() {
      /usr/bin/sispmctl -o1
}

AddUsbOptions() {
      AddSuspendHook 10 UsbPowerSocketDown
      AddResumeHook 10 UsbPowerSocketUp
      return 0
}

AddUsbOptions

Pm-utils has a much nicer API. To add a custom hook add a file to /etc/pm/sleep.d . This uses init style ordering. So look in /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/ for a proper number. I needed to talk to the usb-bus AFTER the modules were loaded, so a number lower than 50. So I added /etc/pm/sleep.d/10usbpoweroptions with content like this:

#!/bin/bash
case $1 in
    suspend)
        /usr/bin/sispmctl -f1 
    ;;
    resume)
        sleep 1
        /usr/bin/sispmctl -o1 
    ;;
esac

After all this fiddling it works like a charm! Now hopefully one standard will emerge; because how to achieve the same result with KDE I don't know. I had to manually patch rhythmbox to change calling (via dbus) the Inhibit method from org.gnome.powermanager to org.freedesktop.powermanagement (because i used a wrong combination of versions..), so this suggests a move in the right direction.

While the music industry is having their holy war against downloaders to disguise the bringing of yet another clone (this time Norah Jones II: Katie Melua); it is time for someone to show the music industries hypocrisy, with their blatant copying of classical music.

Just kidding of course ;), I actually like the Melua cd's. Especially Mike Bright Eyes Batt's songwriting is very smooth. Time to find out where Mike got his ideas and start with some analysis for my (not yet in shape) coverlist, this time with the megahit Nine million bicycles.

The chord sequence is something like:

  Verse:   | I iii | ii IV | ii I |
  Refrain: | iv I  | iv vi | iv I | ii V | 

The verse is a disguised form of the I-IV-I, the tonic-subdominant progression. The mediant (iii) is there to provide some color, the ii is very much linked with the IV (the relative minor of IV). A similar progression can be found in preludes by Bach (for example the prelude from cello suite 6 in D).

In the refrain the subdominant is taken and the key is referred to minor. This is an early romantic period trick (A. Pollack calls this barbershop harmony) for example used in Schubert's songs. I will look for a specific example, but I don't have a CD with this music. Actually I am not so sure where the vi comes from??

So in my (probably wrong) view Nine million bicycles is a mix of a Bach prelude and a Schubert-style song.

• Dorothea Schulz, recorders, flutes and bass flutes
• Margje Bekkering, various recorders
• Jitske Kuiper, various recorders
• Jochem van der Vorm, renaissance and baroque traverso

Today I added a new page to this site, containing a list of pop songs borrowing certain elements of famous classical music. You can find this list of classical covers by clicking on the link or in the menu on the right.

This page is by no means in the shape I intended, but perhaps I will try harder if others can look over my shoulders.

Pop and rock songs often borrow some parts of melody, rhythm or harmony of classical songs. When listening to (pop) music I sometimes notice, but later almost always forget the connection between the song and a classical piece. Since knowing useless facts can be fun, I have decided to write these "classical covers" down.

It is very difficult to exactly pinpoint when a song is a "cover". Therefore I decided not to maintain a bare list, but also write a few words about the connection between the songs, ranging from a small theme or chord progression to a literary transcription in the same key. I try to mention the oldest occurrence in written music, which is very often from the Renaissance or Baroque, simply because mankind started most annotating around this time.

Hopefully I will find some time in the future to accomplish part of these goals.

May 1997: I was visiting a concert on Dynamo Open Air, by a very unknown band, named Within Temptation. About 5000 long-haired and black-dressed metalheads were there to see a very special and refreshing gig.

Now, almost ten years later, this band is very popular and their music has not changed much (genre-members Nightwish, Tristania and After Forever for example, deliver much better, more sophisticated albums). Visiting the Within Temptation concert at Parkpop was however again a nice experience. A crowd of 200.000, consisting of a very wide variety of people, complete families, house- and rapfans, old blues-lovers, ultra-hip designers, etc. etc.) were enjoying the still heavy sound of Within Temptation. Can the world change or what??

Totally unrelated: If someone has/needs a graph of the colour of bread through the ages, contact me; I assembling one.

Yesterday I went to African Footprint, a south African dance/musical show, running already from 2000. This month the show visits Amsterdam.

The show was nice, very good dancers, exciting choreography. It was a blend of modern and African dance in which gumbo, jive, eastern, tapping and even western dancing found its place. Besides the occasionally too heroic spoken moments (Africa is the most beautiful country etc., but no word on the problems between the different tribes, aids etc.). In theater I can handle the disney/hollywood setup of the show better than in movies, because I really appreciate the beautiful voices of professional singers and the proper balance of the sound, well-composed songs and good looking costumes.

The best part was in my opinion the jazz-piece. Why did the black people became so rap-obsessed, while they had the much better jazz/blues???

Today I went to the Mattheus Passion, composed by a fellow named Johann Sebastian. It was performed 100% acoustically by the Hague Residence orchestra and the Residence Bach Choir under the pulse of Arnold Ostman. Since Rammstein became popular in the Netherlands a few years ago, there is a real revival of german music. So it was not surprising to find the concert hall almost full. Public from all ages was present to listen to this great piece of music and perhaps to meet old friends or flirt a little with their neighbours.

Originally the Mattheus Passion is a concept album, not much unlike Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. It is a sad story about a man, who is discriminated (and later even crucified!) because of his unusual religion. This theme is very old and loosely based on a true story.

Lots of covers were incorporated in this piece. Especially the theme from Hassler's 'Haupt of Blut und Wunden' was used in more than one choral. Besides this, Bach also stole some music from his other works. This is not negative, this passion is the best ever written: super harmonies, impaling contrapuncts very balanced orchestration, lovely flute- and other solo's, Bach's thoroughly thought out bass lines and some of the world's most famous aria's. And then I even don't try to bother you with all the mathematics and tricks that are involved in Bach's music (read Godel, Escher, Bach for a start). So this part was absolutely right. But what about the performance?

The orchestra, choir and director were absolutely professionals. Not much more to say about them (OK one thing ;-), the start was a bit unenthusiastic). The boy's choir made some mistakes here and there, but hey I wouldn't be castrated for this task either, so I guess we have to live with that.

The soprano Lenneke Ruiten was a real charming, but also a bit nervous, young lady. Her voice was amazing and lent perfectly for the aria's. If she learns to better interact with the audience (perhaps visit a rock concert to learn the trick) , she will become very famous. I really have no idea if the bass Robbert Murray is a good bass singer. He is very entertaining however and I found his parts a pleasure to listen too. The alt Cecile van Sant and the tenor (?) were just right. The star of the evening was the evangelist. He was able to built a nice tension and was really acting the story (and sung well too). A welcome surprise and unlike any recording I have ever heard.

A small note about the tempi: This piece is performed by different directors in between the 2 and a half and 4 hours! This performance was relatively fast. Sometimes too fast in my opinion ("Ich wil dir meine herze schenken"), sometimes just right (the recitatives were very nicely timed). Most of the time I found the tempo in this performance the right one for modern instruments (some of the flute solos are (in my opinion) impossible to play on a baroque traverso this fast). Personal taste can differ (but yes, Ton Koopman really needs to get some pepper....)

I went to the concert of After Forever and Nightwish in the Heineken Music Hall yesterday. Both bands I saw for the third time, so time for some observations.

After Forever is considered an one in a dozen gothic-metal band by a lot of metalfans. I do not agree with this vision, especially their last album, Invisible Circles, has some very strong songwriting material and I do really like it. Floor is a talented singer with a lot of possibilities, the band decent at least.

Their gig was a very special one, they played with old gorefest drummer/Arjen Lucassen' companion Ed Warby. After one number Floor announced their own drummer has cancer and has to stay in the hospital. This was quite a shock for the audience. The rest of the performance was delivered in a special, strange atmosphere, with an "Andre"-shouting audience, a crying (not disturbingly) singer and a different really powerful drummer. The band was good though.

Compared to the (light, fireworks and water) show from Nightwish, the lightning for After Forever was in my opinion too shallow. I understand that they were the support act, but this was a bit embarrassing, some more nice light effects and darker hall would have added a lot, while they definitely would not outshine Nightwish in show. Sound was good though, especially compared to the other halls of this size (Brabanthallen, Ahoy, Jaarbeurshallen, Statenhallen).

The headliner Nightwish is professional. No really, they make less mistakes then Marco Borsato (I guess). Perhaps too professional. A bit more jamming would have been nice. Tuomas, the keyboard player is the composer and writes almost all music. In previous gigs, he was also (after Tarja), the most visible element on stage. Yesterday he was not. This is a shame, because the rest of rather weak. His (very small) improvisations sound weird and his timing is rather a-musical at times. On their albums, you do not hear this (his guitar parts, written by the keyboard player, are nice and original, thus sound fresh on CD). Playing a Pink Floyd cover (High Hopes) however, is not very smart if your guitar player does not play equal or better than David Gilmour. Since the Century Child album, there are some additional vocal parts for the bass-player. On CD these parts work really well, live they were always false. But not this night! Despite the vodka, Marco sang really well.

Perhaps I am nitpicking. Nightwish is a world-class band and they gave a very good show. However, they are doing this for a long time already, so it is time to raise the bar a bit :-). I had a very nice musical evening!

Introduction

Pop and rock songs often borrow some parts of melody, rhythm or harmony of classical songs. When listening to (pop) music I sometimes notice, but later almost always forget the connection between the song and the classical piece. Since knowing useless facts can be fun, I have decided to write these "classical covers" down. On this page you can find my (very incomplete) list.

By no means do I want to judge the quality of the songs. I also do not condemn reusing music; reviving old masterpieces should be done more. Sometimes the original is better, sometimes the cover, and sometimes both are equally awful or heaven-sent; these subjective decisions are left out of this page as much as (humanly) possible.

It is very difficult to exactly pinpoint when a song is a "cover". Therefore I decided not to maintain a bare list, but also write a few words about the connection between the songs, ranging from a small theme or chord progression to a literary transcription in the same key. I try to mention the oldest occurrence in written music, which is very often from the Renaissance or Baroque, simply because mankind started most annotating around this time.

Feel free to contact me if you find mistakes, want to add something or have a question.

Music theory

Because in music theory everyone uses different terms for the same things, here I try to give a brief explanation of the terms as I use them.

Melody

Harmony

Guitarist are trained in reading chord schemes, like C-F-G, appointed with letters. These are absolute keys (actually they are not, but in modern times we kind of standardized on a=440 Hz, so I consider them absolute..). In this notation a C-chord consist of the notes c, e and g. This is a major chord. A minor chord (like c es g) can be notated in a lot of ways (Cm, c, etc.). I don"t use absolute notation here, so I do not have to choose.

I will use relative notation with I II III IV V VI VII as major chords and i ii iii etc. as minor chords. With this notation the scheme is related to the actual key (if the piece is in C, then I is the C major chord). I is often called the tonic, V the dominant and IV the sub dominant. In music theory there are often a lot ways to look at things. For example relative minor/major pairs consist of the same notes, but considered major/minor, because we accept a certain root key in it. (a minor and c major both only have whole notes).

Most theory "deals" with three note chords (triachonic(?). Of course it is no problem to play 2 or more notes together. Two notes are Lots of rock/metal music uses power chords (quint), which is played instead of the expected (usually) major chord. With distortion a power chord just sounds better and our mind fills the missed noted in automatically, so I will consider the "expected" chord.

When dealing with more than three notes, there is usually an explanation possible about the extra note (kept from melody, key, chord sequence or just belongs to the chord). C major is c e g, so if the fourth note is also a c e g, the chord is still c major.

Rhythm

Terms

The cover list

     I > V > vi > iii > IV > I > V
     - Ralph McTell - Streets of Londen
     - Coolio - Gangsta"s Paradise 
     - Pet shop boys - Go West 
     - Demis Russos  - Rain and Tears 
     - Nocturnal Rites - Ring of Steel 
    

     - The Beatles - Because (?)
     - Depeche Mode - Moonlight Sonata
     - Alicia Keys - Piano and I
    

     - Procul Harum - Whiter shade of pale
     - Yngwie Malmsteen - Air
    

     - Beatles - Black bird (saw mcCartney telling this himself) 
     - Jethro Tull - Bouree (Barre says in an interview that he learned 
          it from a music student upstairs (he can"t read notes))
    

     - Toy Dolls - Tocatta
    

     - William Orbit - Adagio for strings
     - Skip Raiders  - Another day
    

     - Rank 1 - Sensation Anthem 
    

     - Gerard Joling - No more bolero"s
    

    - John Williams - The imperial march (Star Wars)
    

    - Vangelis - Conquest of paradise
    

    - Eric Carmen - All by myself
    

Feel free to contact me if you find mistakes, want to add something or have a question.

• The www.coversproject.com contains a huge database of pop/rock songs covered by other pop/rock bands. Very cool site!
• Lots of info on guitar playing and music theory on Olav Torvunds website.
• Of course wikipedia has a lot of informative pages, on chords, harmony, tonality and an index on musical techniques.

Flute (traverse)

Traverso (baroque)

Spanish Guitar

Steel String Guitar

Electric Guitar

Piano

Yesterday evening the Gathering played in Nighttown, Rotterdam and I was there of course! It was perhaps the 20th Gathering concert I visited (since their first album) but it was still excellent! Their new album, Souvenirs is absolutely lovely. Although a lot of converted metal-bands are not so good in their new genre, the Gathering continues to be my favorite band of all times.

Playlist (by heart, not 100% sure):
These Good People, Golden Grounds, Nighttime Birds, Even The Spirits Are Afraid, Broken Glass, Analog Park, Travel, Bad Movie Scene, Eleanor, Saturnine, Monsters, Amity, Souvenirs, You Learn About It, Black Light District (wow!), Great Ocean Road.

See here for some pictures of the tour.